Some interesting quotes about changes to NSF’s Merit Review Criteria in this article Chemical and Engineering News (via the Penn research office). C&ENewsDec10.pdf (application/pdf Object). If you’re interested in the history behind these changes, see “Reassessing the Science-Society Relation” here. … Continue reading →

In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. … Continue reading →

Policymakers and academics agree that the economic or public impact of research can’t be demonstrated through just citations and bibliometrics yet open access publishing, altmetrics and online methods must be further developed before we can rely on them to prove … Continue reading →

Alex Bruton, associate professor in innovation and entrepreneurship at Mount Royal University in Canada, thinks so. The ‘flipped academic‘, as he sees it, is an academic who informs first and publishes later, seeking usefulness as well as truth in their … Continue reading →

As an example of the interface of aesthetics, visual content in this case, and ethics, the implied message and its implications, I would rate this as good design (intellectual) merit, but poor ethical and social merit (impact)… … which, in … Continue reading →

If you click on one link today, I recommend this one: Interdisciplines : CASE STUDY: INCREMENTAL UPGRADING OF ENKANINI – THE ISHACK INITIATIVE. Dear Colleagues: INIT, the International Network of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity, is continuing to host a virtual … Continue reading →

http://scienceprogress.org/2012/12/technology-and-society-fracking-ideology/ As a follow up to the Science Progress article I co-authored with Dr. Adam Briggle earlier this July, we have written another short piece that again explains the subject of our study, Technology and Society: Fracking Ideology, and requests reader participation. … Continue reading →

On 1 January 2013, the world can go back to emitting greenhouse gases with abandon. The pollution-reduction commitments that nations made as part of the Kyoto Protocol will expire, leaving the planet without any international climate regulation and uncertain prospects … Continue reading →

“Texas state government has been a wholly owned subsidiary of national oil and gas interests for a century,” he says. “Do not look at it for guidance on anything related to protecting public health and safety.” Strong words — and … Continue reading →